Cannabis light, green light for sale if THC is below 0.5%

The text approved overnight in the Senate (and proposed by Senators Mollame, Mantero. Sbrollini, De Petris, Cirinnà and Nugnes) clarifies and implements the requested reform. It starts from the use of the substance as biomass and then reaches the shops that sell light cannabis. The new law, first of all, provides for a tax of 0.4 euros per gram on the finished product. And this is a first step. Then, however, it clarifies the maximum quantity of THC that these products must contain. It must be strictly less than 0.5%. In the rules applied until now, this percentage varied depending on the source between 0.2 and 0.5% and this caused many problems and misunderstandings. Finally, the amendment adds that light hemp is not only possible to grow (already provided for by law 242 of 2016) but also to sell.

At this point, if the budget law passes, the shops will have definitive official recognition.

"After two and a half years of fighting, it seems that the goodness of our motivations has been recognized. We have unmasked the folly of prohibitionism, created from nothing an agricultural and commercial chain that was unimaginable only two years ago, and we have managed to have the law on hemp and narcotics amended in its most controversial aspects." These are the words of Luca Marola, founder of Easyjoint, the company that first had the idea of ​​selling cannabis with a low THC content. Five Star Senator Mollame, the first signatory of the amendment, comments: "With this rule we are going to regulate a sector of agricultural production characterized by a lack of clarity due to regulatory and jurisprudential uncertainties. Active cannabis is a plant with extraordinary qualities, from which we obtain fabrics, ropes, sailcloth, but also flour and oil. Incentivizing this market will lead not only to a virtuous path of green economy but will also give a boost to the economy of the sector. In Italy there are about 3 thousand companies for a total of 10 thousand employees, in a sector in continuous and strong growth, also due to the international demand for cannabidiol used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals".

For Maurizio Gasparri of Forza Italia, it is "a very dangerous sub-amendment by the 5 Star Movement that makes progress in policies of openness to drugs. Under the pretext of regulating the industrial production of hemp, the commercialization of flowers is encouraged and the consolidated text for narcotics is modified, facilitating the sale of products with a low tetrahydrocannabinol content".